Hello, I am still alive despite the UK government's best efforts.

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Chapter 15: You're Not Listening

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Black Star wasn't sure what was happening to him. His eyes were closed, but he could still see vague shadows move around him. Kid? The Priest? Other people?

His throat burned with every breath he took. He could only hear vague muffled sounds — people talking? — as his eardrums stung from pressure and clogged water. His body was cold and numb, but he still felt a pressure under him — was he being carried? How long had they had carried him? Or was he lying down somewhere?

His memories came back along with his senses; he remembered the last thing he saw before he collapsed, being in deep in the Temple's well with Kid — Oh.

Black Star coughed — his lungs felt clogged and burning — and a terrible thought occurred to him.

He might be dying. But that wasn't possible, he couldn't...

...He should be awake by now. He should be indignant that he, the great Black Star, had been brought to the brink of death. He definitely should not even entertain the notion of dying, even if... He had got out of the water, hadn't he? He had punched Kid real good, got him out of that strange homicidal trance, and ended up on dry land.

So why was it that Black Star felt his lungs twist and turn as if they were water balloons? Why couldn't he at least move his arms or open his eyes?

Was this it?

... No, Black Star wanted to live. Black Star would live, if only to prove to Kid that he could surpass him. Black Star had defeated the Kishin. He wouldn't let a little water get the best of him. He had so many things he wanted to do.

Fuck dying. Not now. Not when he'd decided to go back, even if...

With a last push, Black Star opened his eyes, and promptly closed them at the ensuing bright light.

Slowly, Black Star tried opening his eyes again, looking away from the bright window across from him, and towards the thin but warm blanket thrown over him.

He tried to get back up only for his trembling arms to give out, plopping back into the bed as his chest exploded with pain. He coughed by instinct, his ribs aching with each movement.

After Black Star painfully suppressed his coughing fit, he tried standing up, only to fail again. He tried to move his legs over the bed for better purchase, only for them to ache and uselessly twitch like his arms.

"Champion!" came the voice of the village's tiny figure —Black Star really should have asked for her name — as she rushed to the bedside. Black Star flinched at the loud volume. His ears were slightly ringing, and the figure placed a hand over her mask. "Oh, my apologies if I was loud. I came as soon as I heard you coughing—"

Black Star ignored her as he tried to get up again, this time sitting up, propped by his elbows. His breaths were shallow and irritated his throat.

The figure reached out to him. "Champion, no, you must rest-!"

Black Star batted her hand away. "What...?" His voice had turned low and raspy, which would be cool if talking wasn't so damn painful.

The figure fumbled and stuttered and gave him anything but a solid answer.

Ignoring her protests, Black Star plopped his legs over by the side and slowly got up, using the bed frame as support. His legs ached and his calves cramped, but Black Star stayed still, waiting for the feeling to pass. He was planning to walk out the door when he paused in realisation and turned to the small figure in front of his bed. "Where am I?"

The villager looked him over — or at least her mask moved in the general direction — unsure whether to approach. "We brought you back to the village to recover, Champion." She brought her hands together, fingers tangling and untangling with nervous energy. "It's a miracle you survived, though we helped little..."

"Where's Kid?" Black Star repeated, making a simple plan of action; First, he was going to find and yell at Kid for almost drowning him. Then he was getting Kid out of here. Finally, he was going to get to the bottom of this because Kid couldn't have randomly decided to kill him.

Unless...

No, there had been no one else in the Temple. Kid would have sensed them at least. And from Black Star's limited experience, mad Great Old Ones weren't subtle.

"The... other Champion is here too," the figure began, and Black Star's plan seemed solid. "It was thanks to them you survived at all, even if..."

"Even if what?" Black Star rasped as he tried to take a step forward, only to feel like he'd stepped into a barrel full of needles. He was gonna punch Kid again for making Black Star walk to him after waking up, wasn't he the one who kept going on about proper bedside manners?

"Champion, do you remember what happened...?" the figure meaningfully trailed off.

Black Star narrowed his eyes. So the villagers knew that Black Star almost drowned, but did they know of Kid's involvement too?

"... I got no idea what you're on about," Black Star coughed, damn that sentence was too long, "but we're not staying here-"

The figure moved to stand between Black Star and the door. "It's dangerous to leave! You'd die for certain this time, like everyone else-!"

"What-" Black Star coughed. His heart burned, and he momentarily felt it beat irregularly as he sat back down on the bed. "Who's everyone else?"

"Every other Champion before you," came Archiereus' voice and Black Star whipped his head around to see him walk through the door, robes flowing and all that. "Be glad you have not joined them yet."

Black Star momentarily ignored an overwhelming urge to punch the guy. "Pft, what do you mean, others? I'm one of a kind!" He let out a triumphant laugh, only to shortly turn into wet coughs. Damn, his lungs felt like they were on fire, but that didn't hurt as much as the thought of not being able to brag at full volume. "'Sides you don't know what you're talking about—"

"Do not try to hide what happened from us, Champion," the Archiereus cut him off. "It was only because we kept a close eye that you did not meet your demise that night."

Ah shit. So that was why Black Star was here.

"So you've been spying on us? What, too chicken to face us properly?" Black Star flexed his legs, still sore but less likely to give under him. His lungs hurt less with each breath too.

"This village is built on a hill. You were never out of our sight. But of course, that is not what I am here to discuss."

"Yeah, I bet." Black Star sat up again, wobbling less this time, but still holding onto the bed frame. "Take me to Kid." When no figure made a move, Black Star took a deep steadying breath and let go of his support. "Injured or not, I can still kick your ass."

"I have no doubt you can. If you insist..." The Archiereus turned around.

Black Star braced himself and took a step forward. He swayed slightly and had to use the wall for support as his vision swam.

The short figure reached out. "Champion..."

"I'm back in action!" Black Star yelled as the short figure subtracted her hand with a yelp. He felt another cough rise, but he merely held his breath, his eyes tearing up from the momentary pain.

"Congratulations," the Archiereus evenly said. "Follow me then."

Black Star ambled after the man, his sore legs itching with each step. He occasionally used the wall for support when a leg almost gave out or when one of his breaths came too short and bubbly.

Damn, near-drowning sucked.

"We tried to warn you, Champion," the Archiereus said as they walked. "We knew what would happen, yet still..."

Black Star ignored him. He tried to remember the hallways they passed by, but merely walking was a chore. Plus, he had to conserve his energy for his and Kid's inevitable breakout from these crazy people.

The Archiereus turned and opened a door to a room that at first glass looked like a hallway. It was long and dark, with little furniture and odd stains on the walls.

As the two walked in, Black Star got a better look and realised the stains were actually handprints left with paint. They were lined across and along the wall, like a single branch of overgrown ivy. Yet above all, there was one particular detail that was off in this room.

"Kid's not here," Black Star said as the Archiereus paused in the middle of the room. Dammit, if this was a trap...

The Archiereus pointed to the bottom of the wall where the line of handprints came to a stop. "Yours were supposed to join them. Yet you run off as soon as you arrived, only to come back with—"

"I don't care about your weird village rituals, dude—"

"Do you realise who all of these handprints belonged to?"

Black Star's face fell. He could feel a lecture coming and was already dozing off. "Village people?"

"No. None of these belong to anyone in the village."

Black Star's frown deepened. "So you got people visiting you from a hidden town or something?"

The Archiereus sighed. "No. We are the only people left on this island."

Black Star stared at him, unconvinced.

"It is a custom we have observed since our first Champion arrived," the Archiereus continued. "Since she perished we have kept track off all of them, as they came and went, and many of us despaired none of them would ever make it out alive—"

"Wait," Black Star cut him off. "That doesn't make sense, Kid and I disappeared at the same time, our stories match up." And there were so many handprints on the wall...

"Time does not flow linearly here. Never had since..."

That still made little sense to Black Star, the dead Champions didn't make any sense like so many other things here, like why they were on this island and why Kid had tried to kill him and there were so many handprints

Black Star took a step back. "Ok, I'm not playing around, where is he—?"

"Enough of this nonsense!" The Archiereus exclaimed, and the volume of his voice made Black Star take another step back. "You survived, he's here, he's cooperating and you will not waste this opportunity for us—!"

"Or what big guy—?!" Black Star yelled back, his sore throat protesting and making his voice raspier, which honestly helped with the point he was trying to make. "I won't ask again. Tell me where Kid is." He stepped forward, but the Archiereus merely stood still, staring at the wall. "Hey, tell me or I'm throwing you against that wall like I did last time."

No reaction.

Black Star scowled and reached out for his robes. "Hey, I'm talking to—"

There was a tiny but sharp sting at the base of his neck. Black Star jumped up and instinctively tried to swat the stinging area, only for his palm to brush against a tiny feather and wooden cylinder.

He yanked out the dart before his brain even processed what it was. As the dart clattered to the floor, so did he as his legs gave out, soreness replaced by numbness.

"Bastard," Black Star breathed out, and the sensation was too similar, of not being able to breathe, of his vision darkening and his limbs going numb—

"It pains me to resort to such measures," he heard Archiereus' voice, quiet and muffled, "but as I feared, you are incapable of understanding."

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Black Star woke up with his chest feeling like it was on fire. Again.

Damn that man and this stupid island and its fucked up myths. Atlantis sucked.

Black Star made a move to jump off the bed only for metal to push against his wrist and unceremoniously plop him back down, irritating his still sore ribs.

Great. He was chained up too. It was in-character with how these village idiots kept underestimating him, after all they just didn't seem to realise that Black Star had surpassed God and was above such silly tricks—

"You're awake."

Black Star craned his head to the other side of the room—the bastards had moved him in a new one, with no window and a door with reinforced hinges nailed into the wall—where a cloaked figure sat miserably by a lone dinky chair. The other Priest from the Temple.

Black Star went back to fiddling against the manacles and pointedly did not look at her. The chains trailed down to the floor, their base unseen. Black Star could probably break them, but he'd need to make sure he didn't break his wrists or something. "Oh, so you're finally talking to me?"

After not hearing an answer, Black Star stretched his neck over the bed to see the chain connected to a carved stone base. Damn, he was hoping they connected to the wooden frame, which would be as easy to tear as paper.

"With the rate you're going they'll kill you too, oh mighty 'Champion'."

"My name's Black Star, and I'd like to see them try." He gave the chain an experimental tug and felt it tense and vibrate. "Why are you here?"

The Priest raised her leg, where a chain similar to Black Star's stretched from it and to the wall.

"Huh," Black Star said as he scooted to one side and wrapped his hand around the chain, preparing to pull it from its base.

"You're trying to escape," the Priest said.

"Duh."

"And? What will you do after that?"

"Finding Kid and getting out," Black Star said without sparing her a look as he tugged at the chains again. "And figuring out a way to leave this shitty island."

"My," the Priest replied, "you certainly seem to care about them."

"Kid? 'Course I do, we're..." Black Star paused, unsure. "We're close."

The Priest hummed in confusion. "I thought this whole situation is because this isn't the case."

Black Star gripped his chain tighter. "It's..."

Black Star knew this wasn't the right time or place, and that he wasn't good at philosophical stuff, but he couldn't help but remember something Sid and Mira told him as he was growing up and figuring himself out. It'd been a typical awkward 'serious' conversation between him and his guardians, an embarrassing memory at the time, but a conversation he'd occasionally think back on. It had started off awkwardly enough with the 'birds and the bees', but then Black Star had asked if he was supposed to like girls. Sid had stumbled and had rambled on about how it was ok for Black Star to like anyone, as long as he made sure they were a good person. Mira had taken some time to catch on, but she'd joined in as well and went on about different forms of love, and every society was different and yada, yada... At the time, Black Star had found it funny to see his guardians stumble over something so seemingly minor, but thinking back on it...

"I mean..." he eventually said, "I don't think there's only one way to love someone."

The Priest leaned back on their dinky stool. "Oh?"

"I mean, you know," Black Star said as he tried to remember what Naigus had told him all those years ago. "You have like, love like couple-stuff, or like your folks, or a friend or... like when two people know each other for a long time, you know..." He ran out of words but he still felt like he hadn't described what he'd been meaning to. "Or... whatever it is, I think it's just as true."

Or at least Black Star would like it to be so. Kid seemed to like him as a friend, and Black Star did too! Just... It was one thing for them to stay friends, or to be boyfriends. Kid had said he couldn't be with Black Star as the latter as he didn't like people that way, but then they'd been laying together in the temple, and Kid had said he wanted them to still be close...

"It sounds like you've given this a lot of thought."

Ugh, thinking about those things only confused him! And he was talking about those things with some strange old lady too!

"Whatever, screw this and whatever Goddess came up with this crap test of 'true love'," he mocked in a sing-song voice at the last bit.

The Priest opened her mouth to speak, but paused at the sound of two pairs of footsteps approaching their cell. Black Star tensed and let go of the chain. He tried to sit upright, but the chains pushed him back and his chest flared with some leftover pain, so he sat back down with a scowl.

The door creaked open and he could hear two familiar voices whispering at each other.

"This is a waste of time," the Archiereus hissed.

"But maybe we still can..." the small figure whispered back.

"Where's Kid?" Black Star asked as soon as the two entered, craning his neck to get a better look at the duo. "What have you done to him? I know he's not as strong as me, but he can still kick your ass—"

"Our island will perish!" the Archiereus yelled. "It already-!" They began but stopped just as abruptly, clenching their fists.

Black Star frowned.

The small figure approached the Archiereus' side. "We have enough for the coming winter," she timidly said.

"But not for the next one. Not even for the following autumn if this rot spreads..."

"You mean like the black goo in the fruit?" Black Star asked.

Archiereus sighed. "See, it has become common enough that even he noticed it."

"Yeah, I tried to eat it—"

"You what—?!"

"But Kid stopped me, not that it would have killed me, of course! But, it means your stupid theory that he wants to kill me and that he killed the Champions is bullshit and you got no clue what's going on!" He paused for a second to think. "Oh yeah, unless they ate souls, but then they wouldn't be Champions, not that any of them would stand a chance against me of course—!"

The Priest's chains rattled as she lifted a hand. "If I may say something—"

"You may not," the Archiereus cut her off.

The Priest's hand fell back down.

"Dude, if you don't let me go, I'm breaking out," Black Star lazily said. "Like, I'm still a bit groggy but give me an hour—"

"Then we'll drug you again."

"Ha! You clearly don't know of the feats that I, the great Black Star, am capable of! I've become immune to it already!" This was a rare case where Black Star would admit he wasn't telling the whole truth, though his version of immunity included being aware enough not to be hit with a dart again.

The small figure slumped as the Archiereus sighed. "Stop this. Just stop with the brave act, Champion. You have become aware of the nature of your presence here, the other Champion has already made an attempt on your life, yet you refuse to acknowledge it—"

"There's something else going on here!" Black Star cut him off, rising as far as these stupid chains would allow him. "I know Kid, he's my friend, he's my..."

"He acted like you were a nuisance—"

Black Star's ears burned. "Dude, do you not have friends, don't you know what joking around is—?"

"These sound like the excuses of a lovesick fool."

Black Star's entire body felt like it was on fire, and he pushed against the chains again, hearing them groan.

"If you keep refusing, we will have to take drastic measures!" the Archiereus continued. "If you are incapable of being a Champion, we will need to find a new one..."

The small figure gasped. "But a new Champion only appears if the previous one dies..."

Black Star's eyes widened in amusement. "Just try to kill me, you old fart—!"

"What! Do! You! Not! Understand!" the Archiereus screamed as his body trembled with barely contained rage. "You will die! We will die! Everyone on this accursed island will die, unless—"

Oh God, not this again. Black Star grimaced and rolled his eyes as the Archiereus' words went in one ear and out the other, only catching the occasional sentence fragment...

"—And he's cooperating—"

"Wait," Black Star cut him off. "What was that—What do you mean by that?" Was he talking about Kid?

The Archiereus paused indignantly, but straightened up, somewhat pleased at Black Star's shocked expression. "Yes, after your near death experience, he finally seems to realise the gravity of the situation and has been cooperating thus far. Any guards we have posted will be ineffective at best unfortunately, but they have been complying with our orders and staying in..."

Black Star's stomach twisted in ugly ways, and all he could do was shake his head. This made little sense, Kid cooperating with these bastards, trying to drown Black Star made little sense, the wall covered in the handprints of underwater corpses made little sense...

"... This is as good of a chance as we can get—"

"There is no chance!" Black Star cut him off. "I've told you a million times, old man, Kid doesn't love me that way!"

"They can't love, period!" the Archiereus shouted over him and Black Star went silent. "So, stop dreaming of impossibilities and pipe dreams and do what must be done—!"

"Shut up."

The Archiereus paused with a huff and looked back to the small figure, his shoulders tensed in annoyance. A horrible metallic groan made him glance back at Black Star, and his entire frame slumped.

In a blink of an eye, Black Star had gone from being chained down to standing upright on the bed, towering over the Archiereus. His chains came off at the base of the bed and fluttered about as if made of paper.

Black Star raised his hand, the chain falling down his forearm, revealing a bruised wrist. "Kid can certainly love better than you can, so keep your trap shut and." He pulled his arm back. "Clench. Your. Teeth." His hand curled into a fist. "Because I'm gonna break every single one of them."

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Kid was not feeling like himself. There was a lurking presence in the back of his head, a faint haze like he'd been rudely woken up from a deep afternoon nap. And indeed, Kid has been on this island for a long time, with many other so-called Champions, so many others before Black Star, with their handprints adorning the village wall and their corpses rotting in the bottom of that well.

And Kid remembered nothing. He couldn't remember anything, which made a twisted amount of sense as he couldn't have done this, Kid couldn't have tried to drown Black Star in his sleep...

But his hands had been the ones wrapped around Black Star's throat. He had been the one holding him underwater until he'd stopped breathing... And it would explain why all those odd scratches despite doing his best trying to take care of his clothes, the familiarity the Priest addressed him...

But Kid couldn't have done this. He knew that deep down, but that realisation disturbed him even more.

His first guess had been that the Goddess or some other external force had controlled him, but Kid knew deep down, as certain as the stars that burn bright in the sky, that though the Great Old One of Order can be manipulated or deceived, they cannot be puppeted. Their Madness would not allow it.

Kid's next and most disturbing suspect had been said Madness. Maybe he had somehow lost his grip on it, but even so, killing Black Star made little sense. His Madness was about Order, control, not mindless murder. And there was no other being in the universe that possessed that Madness. Just Kid. Just his soul.

Except his soul was and would never be entirely his, would it?

... He and Black Star cannot stay here, they must get out of this island as soon as possible, by any means necessary and if that meant playing along with the delusions of a grieving God, then Kid had done worse things, intentionally or not, and he just wanted this to be over—

Distant sounds of fighting interrupted Kid's thoughts, and he looked up just as Black Star kicked down the door. Kid wanted to yell at him for getting up so soon, for refusing to rest despite his pale face and flushed cheeks, despite the way he heaved like he couldn't breathe properly.

But before Kid could say anything, Black Star gave him a bright grin. "Kid!" His infectious positivity reached Kid, and he almost smiled before he saw the broken chains dangling from his arms and the Priest skulking behind him. "Come on, we're getting out of here!"

As Black Star reached out and grabbed his hand, Kid felt it, that presence at the back of his head, a pulse from an old vast conscience that momentarily smothered him.

Kid pulled his hand away, and the conscience retreated like a premature tide.

Black Star gave him a confused look, but his grin returned moments later. "Uh, that's cool, just make sure you follow me, 'k?

"Wait," Kid said, but Black Star already dashed to the opposite side of the door and punched a hole through the wall.

"My, he's really stubborn when he puts his mind to it," the Priest muttered as she walked past Kid. "I can see why this one escaped."

"I—"

"Kid! Either you're jumping or I'm gonna back up and kick your ass out—!"

"You're not going anywhere!" Kid yelled back.

"Eh?! We can't stay here with these bastards, come on!"

"He had a very tense exchange with the Archiereus," the Priest said in a monotone.

"Hey if this about the almost killing me thing, it's no biggie—!"

"Just stop!" Kid yelled, and Black Star finally went quiet. He looked up to see him halfway out the broken wall, equal parts confused and worried. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Escaping, duh."

"And going where? Back to that damned Temple? With me?!"

Black Star scratched his head. "I mean—"

"Do you have a death-wish?!"

"But it wasn't you, right?" His grin widened as Kid's composure faltered.

"It doesn't matter—"

"I'll be extra careful, no worries, I'm gonna find like, sugar or coffee and pull an all-nighter—"

And Black Star rambled again as he reached out to grab Kid.

That strange conscience resurfaced, stronger this time.

The sun was setting.

Kid batted his hand away. Black Star wasn't listening. He was refusing reality, just pretending everything would work out, everything would balance itself out...

Black Star called out his name as Kid rushed past him and ran, not towards the temple, but away, across the edges on the rotting orchards and craggy peaks. The sky turned a deep blue, and a haze came over Kid, but he kept running, away from the Temple, until his legs finally gave out and he collapsed into a familial void.

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As always, thank you all for your patience and feedback/comments.

Also if you are interested in soul eater (specifically its more Lovecraftian aspects) check out this discord server: discord . gg / ZvBZW6q (18+ because there is a nsfw channel and the occasional stray sex joke). I can also be found Sleepy#3903 and are always up to gab about this series.

Finally, finally, I made a shitty meme about this story but this site won't let me link it, bah